As Clearing The Path To Ascend, the Neurot Recordings debut from YOB, finally sees the light of day, the band has embarked on a mammoth European tour, with support from Pallbearer.

States the New York Times of the band’s latest studio realization, “YOB, from Eugene, Oregon led by singer and guitarist Mike Scheidt, likes slow tempos but doesn’t necessarily need them; it puts more emphasis on technical flourishes and stays a bit more within the minor-key, semi-operatic and philosophical traditions of doom metal,” upon the album’s stateside release. Stereogum equally approved, in an Album Of The Week review issuing, “when Clearing The Path… is playing, it doesn’t sound like a really good doom metal album. It barely even sounds like music that’s being made by humans. It sounds like the night sky opening up before you. It sounds like surrender of the soul.”

“This part of the album gets dark, but it also has a sense of beauty and resolve,” said Scheidt of the track “Unmask The Spectre,” furthering that, “the mood and atmosphere nod equal parts to old and new YOB… It’s one of my favorite things we’ve ever done.” Hear for yourself RIGHT HERE.

Clearing The Path To Ascend is available now via Neurot Recordings HERE. The vinyl pressing will be out via Relapse Records on September 16th.

YOB is currently decimating Europe on a five-week tour of the continent, with support from Arkansas doom outfit, Pallbearer, the trek running into the second week of October in support of Clearing The Path To Ascend.

Recorded at Gung Ho Studio in Eugene, notorious for its reserve of vintage equipment, alongside the band’s longtime cohort and iconic sound-sage, Billy Barnett, Clearing The Path To Ascend was mastered by Brad Boatright (Sleep, Beastmilk, Nails) at Audiosiege. As is the YOB way, the album’s four movements don’t simply offer a vacuous glimpse into the already riff-soaked doom genre, they demand the tandem attention of mind, body, and soul, etching a mark across a sound that finds YOB as formidable as they’ve ever been. True ascension requires a destruction of those barriers that prevent any movement forward. Unsurprisingly, YOB pummels any and all of these obstacles with absolute authority, clearing the way for a genuinely visceral listening experience and climbing upward into a realm that sets the band in a heavy metal place that has been and will always remain wholly their own.